LRNT528 Facilitation Plan
By Weri Gadou, Marion Goetze, and Stephen Peasley
Facilitation Week: The Facilitator’s Role in Creating Inclusive Learning Environments
Learning Objective(s)
By the end of this week, learners will be able to apply facilitation that fosters social connection, engagement with ideas, and adaptability in order to create inclusive online learning environments.
Learning Resources
Falling Walls Foundation. (2021, October 8). The science of awakening the brain: How to break through to a new you [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDX4ubmPNNg
Dr. Patrick Lowenthal is interviewed about his research on social presence in online learning environments. He shares research background, challenges, and strategies for building effective social presence.
Forj. (2024, May 16). How to revive a stagnant online community. https://www.forj.ai/resources/how-to-revive-a-stagnant-online-community
Online community and management consultant Catherine Hackney provides strategies for responding to signs of declining health in online communities.
Asynchronous Activity #1
View the following interview about building social presence in online communities: Talking Social Presence with Dr. Patrick Lowenthal.
Reflect on your own experiences then participate in the following Padlet: [link to come]
Assignment:
Padlet prompt: “Thinking of social presence in learning communities, describe a personal experience you’ve had. How would you describe your role as a member of that community?”
Synchronous Session
Date & Time: Wednesday, October 1 2025 @ [time TBD]
Plan:
- Brief facilitators introductions.
- Icebreaker: Discuss the results of the Moodle icebreaker. Live recap and reveal.
- Discussion based on what people shared in the first async Padlet activity.
- Refresh ideas from the readings: FOLC, SP and CP strategies, etc. mapping to our shared RRU experience as an example of these ideas being modelled well.
- Introduce a challenge: It’s Not Always a Blue Sky
- Collaborative Activity & Discussion: Zoom Whiteboard Scenario Sharing
- Async Activity #2 Introduction: Second Padlet to encourage reflection on personal experiences with struggling online communities, how they were tended to, etc.
- Closing, reflection, and thanks.
- Optional post-presentation discussion.
Interaction: Collaborative Zoom Whiteboard, Group discussions, Moodle posts, Padlet interactivity
Asynchronous Activity #2
Read the following blog post on responding to signs of declining health in online communities.
Forj. (2024, May 16). How to revive a stagnant online community. https://www.forj.ai/resources/how-to-revive-a-stagnant-online-community
Reflect on your own experiences then participate in the following Padlet: [link to come]
Assignment:
Padlet prompt: “Think of an online class or learning community where some people weren’t engaged or felt excluded. What were contributing factors, and what did the facilitator do (or could have done) to keep it engaging and inclusive?”
Technologies
- Canva for running our presentation during the synchronous session.
- Moodle for content delivery, communication, discussion, and activity delivery.
- Padlet for conducting asynchronous, visual activities and sharing.
- Zoom and Zoom Whiteboard for synchronous presentation and collaboration and discussion.
Timeline & Communication Plan
| Date | Task/Event | Communication Method |
| Sun Sep 28 8am PT | 1. Introductions (team)2. Post welcome message3. Intro to the topic4. Icebreaker activity (forum post replies) | Moodle post + email |
| Mon Sep 29 8am PT | 1. Asynchronous Activity #1 | Moodle (self-paced, async) |
| Tue Sep 30 8am PT and ongoing | 1. Mid-week check-in post (encourage responses, reminder about sync session)2. Reply to Padlet posts | Moodle + Padlet |
| Wed Oct 1 TBD | 1. Host 30–60min synchronous session2. Asynchronous Activity #2 | 1. Zoom2. Moodle + Padlet |
| Thu Oct 2 Ongoing | Time for learner engagement and responses | Padlet (self-paced, async) |
| Fri Oct 3 Ongoing | Reply to Moodle + Padlet posts | Moodle + Padlet |
| Sat Oct 4 Ongoing | Closeout, summary, and thank you | Moodle |
Community of Inquiry (CoI)
Teaching Presence: How will you provide structure and feedback? We will provide structure by posting a welcome message with clear directions, reminders, and due dates in Moodle. Instructions for each Padlet and forum activity will be brief and focused, with facilitators clarifying if anything is confusing. During the synchronous session, we will guide the flow of activities, connect ideas back to the readings, and summarize key points at the end. Feedback will be offered through forum replies on Moodle, comments on Padlet posts, and targeted questions during the synchronous session that extend learners’ thinking. This aligns with Vaughan, Cleveland-Innes, and Garrison’s (2013) description of teaching presence as the design, facilitation, and direction of learning activities in order to support meaningful engagement.
Social Presence: We will start the week by introducing ourselves and acknowledging the Indigenous territories that we call home. We will set clear expectations for the week, and engage in a fun, casual icebreaker activity for the participants. Monitoring the participation in our asynchronous activities, we will contribute to the discourse with feedback, encouragement, and validation of responses. For our synchronous session, we will ensure we are involving learners in discussion and collaborative activities, prompting with open-ended questions, and sharing our own personal experiences. We will provide a mid-week check-in on Moodle acknowledging contributions and encouraging further participation and thought. Our learners will connect to one another—and the facilitators—engage with the content, and will be intellectual participants in the learning experience (Vaughan et al., 2013).
Cognitive Presence: How will you encourage critical thinking and reflection?
Also, describe how you’ll know whether each presence was established. We will encourage critical thinking and reflection by designing activities that prompt learners to move beyond sharing experiences towards analyzing and applying strategies. In the asynchronous forum, prompts will invite participants to analyze strategies from resources then reflect on possible barriers to inclusion. The collaborative Padlet will serve as a shared knowledge-building space where learners co-create a “toolbox of inclusive strategies”, reinforcing integration of ideas. During the synchronous session, we will revisit key ideas from the readings, map them to our shared RRU experiences, and guide learners into scenario-based problem solving using “It’s Not Always a Blue Sky” challenge on the Zoom whiteboard. These structured discussions will invite learners to integrate concepts with authentic facilitation dilemmas, and the second Padlet will extend this reflection as they consider how struggling communities can be supported. We will know cognitive presence is established when participants reference readings, build on each other’s insights, and propose concrete strategies for addressing facilitation challenges (Vaughan et al., 2013).
Team Roles
- Project Manager – Stephen
- Timeline Coordinator – Marion
- Synchronous Session Lead – Weri
- Forum Facilitator – Marion
- Tech Support & Tools – Weri
References
Vaughan, N. D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R. (2013). Facilitation. In Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry (pp. 65–102). Athabasca University Press.
Marion, Weri and Stephen,
Thank you for posting this draft. Your week looks to be both reflective and engaging. A few things to consider in your planning process going forward, all of which are merely suggestions and not directions:
1. Your learning outcome is solid and doable with the resources and activities you’ve chosen
2. In the section about your synchronous session, you list: “Icebreaker: Discuss the results of the Moodle icebreaker. Live recap and reveal”. This sounds very fun! I don’t see a reference to the Moodle activity elsewhere in your plan but I may have missed it.
3. You may want to consider narrowing your focus. For example, in this prompt: “Think of an online class or learning community where some people weren’t engaged or felt excluded. What were contributing factors, and what did the facilitator do (or could have done) to keep it engaging and inclusive” could go deeply into engagement strategies (which is what I think your resources are) but also into deeper issues of inclusion/exclusion that are systemic like racism, homophobia or ableism, which are huge topics.
4. I’m so stoked (Hi, I’m Gen X) that you’re using the team roles.
I am really looking forward to your facilitation week!